When Tino Coury shattered his wrist playing High School football his dreams of playing College ball ended, but a new dream began, and like all kids with musical aspirations he headed to L.A. to make that dream come true. There he fell under the guidance of Grammy Award winning Engineer/Producer Manny Marroquin (Alicia Keys, Kanye West). This relationship helped Coury remain in the drivers seat Producing his own music, programming his own drum tracks, down to the editing of vocals. Did I mention he is a multi-instrumentalist. In any case his journey from Pittsburg, Pa to Los Angeles to pursue his dream has come full circle as his first release, Page One, slated to drop February 22nd has all the markings of a great album fit for today’s market.

First track off the E.P., Up Against The Wall, instantly hits on that party life style vibe that’s been making the rounds in artists such as Far East Movement, Lady Gaga, and The Black Eyed Peas. The track is fit with a sonic wall of sound that is without a doubt geared to get your feet moving. Club Anthem anyone and is that 8 bit I hear buried deep down in there? A strong start. The second track off the E.P., Dairy, is a bit Beiber with Coury hitting on a loss of love theme after reading his girlfriends diary. Fortunately he’s old enough that his words carry a substantial amount of weight more then the Never Say Never star, plus Coury adds a tint of bitter anger in the mix of the puppy love sounding track, giving it a bit more bite then its cutesy construction would otherwise have you assume is possible. Track three, Circles, is an acceptable track that is saturated in positivity complete with a freestyle thrown in the middle but all good intentions aside feels like filler.

I F*n Hate You begins the second half of the album which is an excellent club track or teenage anthem every young person will more then likely dedicate to one of their ex’s before they leave grade school. Its kind of a companion track to Diary but avoids that puppy love feel. This is a guy who is pissed and everything about this track is balanced from Coury’s vocal delivery with every bitter slung word to the catchy music that picks up tempo-wise where Up Against The Wall leaves off. Memory follows unfortunately breaking the tempo of such a great start to the second half of the album going from I F*n Hate You’s unapologetic tirade against a former lover to a slow tempo track about how much he misses her and how its going to be so hard to get on without her. Logically and chronologically this makes sense but it just takes the sting out of an otherwise promising second half. The last song on the album, Leave Me My Pen, mixes the usual L.A. cliché (You can have everything/keep the gifts keep the rings/keep the clothes keep the keys to the Benz/Just leave me my pen). Okay so I can’t dock Coury points off for that since I’m still in love with FEM’s Like A G6. In any case the finale track on the album is the more powerful of the slower more emotional tracks. All of the material things in the world mean nothing if you can’t vent the only way you know how. Some people might not be able to understand the significance of this track, well maybe a surface understanding, but it’s a powerful statement that I can appreciate. Not a bad way to close out. As a pop album with a mostly radio friendly offering the E.P. works. I really enjoy the way Coury constructions the beats for his songs but it felt like half the tracks on the E.P. came from, and probably did, his collection of song lyrics from Middle School/High School. Looking forward to seeing what he does a couple of years down the line. His life experience, especially after following his dream to L.A., should garner some interesting songs in the future. As always final judgment is yours. Enjoy.